Rooks, Lowell Ward.

Rooks, Lowell Ward, born 11-04-1893 in Colton, Whitman County, Washington, USA.   to Albert L Rooks (1859-1932) and his wife Ruth Naomi, born Richardson Rooks (1871-1941)

Lowell had one sister and two brothers, Albert Harold Rooks (1891-1942) Edna Bernadine Rooks Sibley Hood (1897-1955) and Melville Jack Rooks ( 1907-1965). His brother Albert  was promoted to the rank of Captain in June 1940 and in 1941 took command of the heavy cruiser “USS Houston” (CA-30), flagship of the Asiatic Fleet, leading convoys and escorts. He was posthumously awarded the CMOH for his bravery at the Battle of Sunda Strait.

Lowell was Chief Ground Forces Training Division Army War College from 1941 until 1942.  A member of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Staff in World War II and Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in 1947-48. General Rooks, who commanded the 90^th Division, nicknamed “Tough Hombres”  at the Battle of the Bulge. Erich Hartmann, the highest-scoring fighter ace in history, along with a sqaudron of the elite Jagdgeschwader 52   fighter wing (the highest-scoring fighter wing in history), surrendered to the 90th. Lowell Rooks was also the commander who took the total surrender of the new Chancellor Karl Dönitz in Flensburg.

On 12 May, American Major General Lowell Ward Rooks and his British deputy, Brigadier E. J. Foord  arrived in Flensburg and established their quarters in the passenger ship Patria, docked in Flensburg harbour. Their mission was to liaise with the Dönitz “acting government” and to impose the will of the victorious Allied Powers on the German High Command. After several contacts between the Allied liaison officers and the Dönitz acting government, on 21 May the Supreme Head quarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), in agreement with the Soviet High Command, decided to dissolve the Flensburg government and arrest its members as POWs. The dissolution was carried out on 23 May. On that day, a British officer went to Dönitz’s headquarters, the ship “Patria” laying in the and asked to speak to the members of the government. Dönitz, Hans Georg von Friedeburg and Jodl were then taken aboard the Patria, where Major General Rooks informed them of the dissolution of the Government and placed them under arrest.

The communication regarding the dissolution of the acting Government and the arrest of its members was made in a formal manner, around a table on Patria’s deck: Dönitz, Jodl and Von Friedeburg sat on one side, with Major General Rooks, British Navy Captain Mund and Soviet General Trusov on the other. Brigadier Foord remained standing, next to Major General Rooks, and an official interpreter was also present at the proceedings.  By the time Dönitz emerged from the ship, the town’s main street was filled with British tanks and troops rounding up the Germans. Hans Georg von Friedeburg committed suicide , while Karl Dönitz, Albert Speer, Alfred Jodl and other members of the dissolved Flensburg Government were taken prisoner. The war had a definite end now on May 23th 1945.

Death and burial ground of Rooks, Lowell Ward.

   Living in Nogales, Arizona, Lowell Rooks died age 80 on 11-01-1973 and is buried on Arlington National Cemetery with his wife Martha, born Phillips, who died age 71 on 24-06-1972, in Section 46.

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